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out as of September 2021, and California Cor- 
rectional Center will be next. ( 


“However, with no new prison 
construction plans on the horizon, ( s 
communities are now going on the “ 
offensive: We are working to clace 

prisons to get people free 


\ 


Our fight for prison closures is first and fore- 
most a strategy to get people free. We want to 
shrink the state’s ability to lock people up by 
shrinking the number of cages it has to do so. 


Many people have heard the phrase, “if they 


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AFFECTED By Ex 


SPOSURE 70 FAC 
RTICULATE MATER? 





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be 
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(OC @s= | feel like whenever Ik ab ji 
ey we talk about climate change, we always frame it in 
Ae Tee 
es a oh ice caps in the Arctic, or the extinction of a rare frog 
es in 
p the Amazon. And those things are incredibly important, don’t 


get me wrong. 


But when we’re having these discussions, we never talk about climate 
change in terms of our own health—despite the fact that doctors and 
other health professionals have called it the biggest public health crisis of 
atk century. Nearly every field of health (pulmonology, nutrition 
infectious disease, mental health, etc.) will be impacted by climate see 


in some way. 


- 


In the past few years, I’ve started to become more interested in the 
relationship between climate change and human health. We saw this 
relationship depicted in the dystopic world of Parable of the Sower, in 
which climate change created such poor conditions and severe resource 
scarcity that the nation was pitched into conflict/instability. 


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a literary perspective made } ey 


cientific/research-oriented 


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king in the lab of Dr. Pinar Ayata (CUNY 
Center) to try and figure out how exposure | 
s heat and particulate matter can facilitate 
of microglia, inducing phenotypic 


fe) Coye-tstopel of this intersection acoyeel 


Butler’s ex 
o consider this question from as 


me want t 
perspective. 














This summer [ll be wor 
Advanced Science Research 
to climate-related factors such a 


the epigenetic reprogramming 
changes in these cells, 


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he causes and | 





n effect on our understanding 0) a 


This research could have a 
ve diseases like dementia. 


: progression of neurodegenerati 










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ike a zine? Why not just write a traditional research paper and 


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To be perfectly frank, I’m totally exhausted by the thought of writing 
another paper. Honestly, half the time ’m reading academic papers, I feel 
like all ’'m seeing is normal and intuitive ideas being cloaked in academic 
Jatgon and being made to sound more impressive than they actually are. 















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| That Ss why I like zines. ey’ onest and exciting to read. And & 


they’re accessible!!! I think it’s so important to dispel this idea that we 
) have to impart academic knowledge in a very particular and formal way. 


‘ds A PRiw’ im ah — i as i” 
aren Pe te ae BEERS MeK Fp 


In creating this zine, I take inspiration from another: Weigh of Showing 
by Denna Fredaar| In her zine (published in the Journal of Interactive 
Technology and Pedagogy), Freedman discus 

,expanding what we consider “scholarship.” She 





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ses the importance of 
writes: 














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) | “Through the form of my work, a colorful, relatable We 
=~ _iZine, | attempt to push the boundaries of ‘ 
- ys Scholarship, and through the content, successfully ¢< 
© hor not, I'm trying to show that there are different == 


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7, =~ scholarly paper” (Freedman 7-2). : a 
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partic matter (PM): a term used to describe the huge variety of 
RE iid parties suspended in the air. when we're thinking about air pollution, a lot of 


< : = r ne ‘about is related to PM. burning fossil fuels produces tons of 
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whict can pe’ = for 0 our health and the environment. — 


is of the brainl! they can enguif pathogens like 


gh bacteria att. ae an also clean up random junk in the brain to keep este . 
Biwad iot ing. smoothly microglia have to be able to quickly respond to changes 


— 


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Re most common form is alzheimer’s. 


~ MePigenetic Yegulation: changing what genes are being expressed & 
turned into protein products without actually altering the genetic code itself. cells 
Bi do this in lots of different ways, but the main effect is that certain genes are 
fg turned on/off based on internal or external signals that the cell is receiving 

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cytotoxXgera. i | - a Rie Ee 

== LAB to va genotoxicity: toxicity to the genome 


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+5 doesn’t just Bonen willy nilly; the cell itself initiates its own death. it includes Sere 
Ba ire DNA fragmentation, RNA decay, and blebbing. (yes, blebbing is a real Sth 
“1 







3 cyte te ki nes: small rsinalng OCS that are really important in telling immune 


m cells what to do when our body is under attack 
A ee 
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OXi dative St¥eSs. occurs when there are too many free radicals in a 


cell. free radicals are unstable molecules that have an unpaired electron in their 
outer shells. because they're so desperate to fill that outer shell, the go around 










some categories of prisoners were dispropor- 
tionately excluded, inclu Cjagageage ae 













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Pos icone sa 
lawversandh@ bw: wo t 
protesters, Vv | era ure “a 
As the virus spread througHer® Sa 
many who remained in prison continued to : 
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voice concern over the dismal conditions they ie 8 
eee Seen |i -e have to out the effects of PM o 
Pete eSebe8 So what does the existing literature have to say about the - 

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to escape aPtracci tea taattekeeriaerct: PM can harm cells in lots of different ways 
dia reporte - - 347 e oy ~- ae . =4 8 =16 7 = 
on March 27 in the Saqqgesz prison in Western - = 7 
eee Soa A was shown to increase the frequency of 

g Exposing pa oe , lear buds (NBUDs), and micronuclei 
‘c bri cle 
lasmic bridges s), nuc : = 
| nue 7 henomena are markers of genotoxicity. As | 
a ee ‘ncreased, the effects worsened. | 
coe: = 
particulate matter concentrations were 1! > | 


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(Santovito et. al). ae SS 


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§ Exposure to PM can also reduce cell viability, decrease cell membrane 
Sey integrity (basically mess up the plasma membrane), and increase rates of 
" apoptosis. Cells exposed to PM also display signs of oxidative stress 
aon levels of ATP, the depolarization of the mitochondrial 


== membrane, etc) (Wang et. 








cytokines like TNF-a, IL- 


6. Typi 
in the body’s immune ypically, 


‘d heavily involved 
oxidati : : 
ative stress (Bai et. a] : to inflammation and 


ites and Sama et. al) § FP gma, 


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Exposure to PM is one of the many risk factors for 









microglial 
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PM can create 





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TLDR; exposure to particulate matter can create inflammation in the 


brain, making it a risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases like 


INVA ales ay 





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f)incto my summer project! As I mentioned earlier, Pilbe | 
?working in the Ayata Lab this summer to answer a question 


f that lies at the intersection of neurology, immunology, and 


i: 
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f cellular and molecular biology. 


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ore how aspects of climate change (like 
enetic state of microglia. 


Objective: To exp! 
particulate matter) affect the epig 








lution disrupts 


Hypothesis: We’re hypothesizing that air pol 


protein homeostasis and metabolism in microglia. This may 
facilitate the epigenetic reprogramming of microglia, leading 


toa pro-inflammatory response. 


Methods: To test this hypothesis, I will expose microglial cells 
to particulate matter. In these cells, I'll investigate changes in 
protein homeostasis, metabolism, epigenetic changes related 


to DNA meth 





lation. 





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i Techniques: qPCR, Western Blot, mass spectrometry, high 


Sus imaging resolution technologies s 









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Significance: These results will hopefully inform future 


experiments that attempt to uncover the neurodegenerative 


eftect of climate change. 





Bai. Kuan-Jen. et al. ~ 

: . : et c bY rilic . ; 
ara faecRalsted P 2 Na Activation and Inflammation Caused by 
allic d Particulate Matter.” (he 
n 228 I@NiuCO- lagi . 
311, 2019, p. 108762 emico-Biological Interactions, Vol 


Free 
e Cedman. Jenna | 
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| C. Lhe. Ourna) 
ittps Jitp i 


We 

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OF ae of Showin r 
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“OmmMons rec 


lec} An Inte 


ractive T. 
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logy and P chr 


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“showing Covey 


Cdagogy » Vol. 16 2019 


Ig 


“In Vitro Genomic Damage Induced by Urban Fine 


Santovito, Alfredo, et al 
Nature Scientific Reports, vol 


Particulate Matter on Human Lymphocytes. 
10. no. 1, 2020 


‘A Review of the Possible 
PM2.5 Exposures Development ol 


/ Environn 


and the 


Shou, Yikal et al. 
ental Safely, vol. 174, 


tween Ambient 


Associations be 
> Ecotoxicology am 


Alzheimel ‘s Disease 

2019, pp 344-52 
Prat * 

1 Vitro 


he Air-Liquid Interface 
> Chemosphere, vol 


“Complex to Simple: lt 
ate Matter Simulated at t 
acts of Major Au Pollutants. 


Wang, Rurxia, ¢ al 
articul 
es the Health Imp 
263-74 


Exposure of P 


Disclos 
923, 2019, pp